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if you dont have a felt squeege to hand do this?
If you don’t have a felt squeegee to hand, wrap a piece of application tape around an ordinary squeegee to prevent the vinyl being scratched when pressure is applied to the bare vinyl surface.
Older squeegees in particular are prone to scratch the surface of vinyl. By wrapping tape around the vinyl is prevented from scratching.
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7 Replies
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or take off your boot and wrap your sock around it!! or you could just buy some cheap ones from the market………………..or just buy some felt squeegies 😎
ANDY
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If you wrapped one of my socks round a squeegee it would probably melt but thats another story. As I have said in previous posts I don’t use felt squeegees at all. I have a few plastic squeegees that have a piece of velvet taped to them. I bought an odd piece of velvet from an upholsterer for about 50p ages ago and still have quite a bit left. Works great, you can apply pressure and dont scratch the vinyl. I have tried the squeegee sleeves you can buy but I found these still scratched the vinyl and were far more expensive than the method I use.
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Enough of the velvet and the socks…OK!…am I the only one that uses Low Friction Sleeves? 😎
I’ve been using them for more than eight years now. The ‘SA-1’ Low Friction Sleeve is a paper sleeve specially made for application squeegees and gives a non-abrasive silky smooth edge without the loss of pressure or contact.
I wouldn’t use a squeegee without one – every day – every job! As the edge becomes ruffled or damaged you simply rotate the sleeve a little around the squeegee to bring a fresh part to the leading edge – so they last for ages. I believe the paper is impregnated with something but they are very smooth and very easy to use.
Made by 3M Graphics Division, I buy them from Spandex or Metamark and I think they’re about 25p per sleeve but not sure. They come five to an envelope and / or 20 envelopes to a box (as shown).
Anyway – try them and you won’t use anything else!
more soon
mikethesign
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Another good trick I learned from a veteran is to buy some Velcro and attatch the loop end aroud the bottom of your applicator.
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Mike, maybe it’s just me and Martin, but I can’t stand the sleeves, they seem to be only slightly less abrasive than a bare squeegee. I prefer the felt ones, or failing that a standard 3m gold (how much ?????) with the looped velcro.
This does tend to get a bit expensive though, I usually misplace one every week or so.
While we’re on the subject of squeegees, is there anyone who uses hard plastic ones? I’ve tried using them but we just dont get on. Are there some applications where these are preferable to the usual flexible ones?
Andy
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hurraahh for sleeves…. v.good on banners !! (hot)
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I’m glad Sticky has replied to this post, I was starting to think I was the only person who didn’t like the sleeves. Maybe its how I am using them but I found that even with a new sleeve it still stratched the vinyl.
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